In the rapidly changing bj-league, the Eastern Conference welcomes a pair of new franchise — the Gunma Crane Thunders and Tokyo Cinq Reves — to the fold this season, while the mighty Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix, a three-time finalist and two-time champion, shift to the Western Conference.
Only four teams have the same head coaches from opening day a year ago: Kazuo Nakamura (Akita Northern Happinets), Bob Pierce (Sendai 89ers), Reggie Geary (Yokohama B-Corsairs) and Matt Garrison (Niigata Albirex BB). Interestingly enough, all four men are entering year two with those teams. Of the four, Pierce and Nakamura the longest-tenured coaches in the East, with both entering the league in 2008, when the Shiga Lakestars, Pierce's first bj-league bench boss gig, and Nakamura, who guided the OSG Phoenix before and after their defection from the JBL. Geary faces a tough challenge to make the playoffs or the Final Four again in the 11-team conference.
There are other familiar faces among the East's coaching ranks, notably Motofumi Aoki, the only sideline supervisor in league history to be hired to run the show for four franchises, starting with the Takamatsu Five Arrows (2006-09), now-defunct Tokyo Apache (2009-10), Shinshu Brave Warriors (2010-11) and now the expansion Cinq Reves, with which he'll reunite with longtime Apache star and six-time All-Star Cohey Aoki, who suited up for the Osaka Evessa last season.